Another portableshrines fuzzfest December 17th at the Chop Suey. Last one of the year so get your licks in! There won’t be another for a bit. But what a mother it is… Magik Markers, AFCGT, Sic Alps and Story of Rats. Grokworthy poster styles by the quixotic Mr. Steve Quenell.

Just discovered an amazing selection of vids over at the ProgDome a site dedicated to all things prog rock. Though I’ve never been much of a prog-dude and tend to be turned off by excessive shows of musical virtuosity for their own sake, these vids are super fun and often mind-blowing. In addition to the new BBC Krautrock documentary there’s also tons of crazy stuff by Gong, Steve Hillage, Trad Gras Och Stenar, Witches Stick, Curved Air, and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. This beautiful Monkees/N. Diamond cover by a post-paralysis Robert Wyatt is weirdly touching and the Wyatt documentary is also a must. Even if you don’t dig prog rock your bound to pick up a few good fashion tips from these nugs.

This Friday the 13th in Seattle an exceptional collection of sights and sounds submitted for your approval. The Diminished Men, Midday Veil, Janina Angel Bath, the Night Beats. A super secret event deep in the heart of the Black Lodge. Don’t tell anyone. Contact us for more info…

This Frday the 13th find your way to the Black Lodge for an evening of transcendental hierophanies, kaleidoscopic visions and rock & roll. It’s the kick off party for the Midday Veil/Janina Angel Bath West Coast tour and also marks the release of two amazing new discs from Midday Veil entitled “Queen of the Void” and “Subterranean Ritual”.
Joining them Friday will be the dark mystery jazz of the Diminished Men and the swirling garage rock vortex known as the Night Beats as well as the mystical Ms. Angel Bath herself(AKA Sequin Trails). Expect plenty of fantastic new projections from David Golightly and the portableshrines cabal and perhaps some intriguing musical collaborations.

Here’s Midday Veil as they blew the roof right off the Deerborn house a few weeks ago…

Get hip to this shit- Darwin of Treetarantula’s birthday w/ Tiny Light (Oko Yono?!) Scriptures and Darwin’s brand new voyage into sound the Audiwasska Travellers at the Cometthis Sunday 11/8 8pm (poster by Darwin)

“Well you know John, the drug war is just an excuse to throw minorities in prison.”

The above is something my uncle, who’s a successful corporate attorney, told me after I was arrested for possession of LSD over a decade ago. It was precisely this advice that persuaded my Dad, who at first vowed zero assistance to cough up the $3500 or so dollars it took to hire a fancy lawyer to talk the charges down to the misdemeanor “attempted possession of LSD”. If it wasn’t for this money, which is little more than a demonstration to the courts that you’re not dirt poor, I might have struggled to have continued access to things like gainful employment and the ability to vote in our society.

The entire process of being thrown in jail and jumping through the endless hoops of the legal system (not to mention being financially drained) left me lower than I’d ever been previously or have sank to since. In short, they had broken my psychologically, which is what the system is designed to do. But in the process I learned a few things. For one, most drug charges are little more than a shakedown. If you can buy your way out of them, you’re probably not going to serve any serious jail time. Secondly, despite what organizations like NORML might tell you, you don’t have any fucking rights in matters like these unless you’re wealthy. It was a blatant case of illegal search and seizure, the cop’s story made zero sense, but you know how much money it would have taken to get that shit in front of a jury? Yeah, more than I had or my Dad was willing to spend. So really it’s just the cop’s word against yours and who do you think the Judge is going to believe?

All of last week’s Halloween festivities left me in the mood to write a horror blog this month, and in my mind, there’s nothing more abjectly terrifying than the drug war. The loosening of the federal government’s persecution of medicinal marijuana and the economic collapse (not to mention having a minority president who has openly admitted to smoking pot) have lead to an increasing dialogue about the legalization of the marijuana. Which is a step in the right direction for sure, but it’s important to understand that the war on drugs is more than just a war on people, it’s also a war on our spiritual development as a species.